HAMLET         How all occasions do inform against me

And spur my dull revenge. What is a man

If his chief good and market of his time

Be but to sleep and feed? A beast – no more.

Sure he that made us with such large discourse,

Looking before and after, gave us not

That capability and godlike reason

To fust in us unused. (4.4.31-8)

How all occasions do inform against me and spur my dull revenge. EVERYTHING is showing me up, making me feel bad about how rubbish I’m being at this revenge business. No matter which way I turn—I’m being sent under guard into exile, for heaven’s sake—there’s reproach, pricking at me, because I’m slow, I’ve lost my edge.

What is a man if his chief good and market of his time be but to sleep and feed? That’s barely living, barely even existing. There has to be more to life than that! If all you do is exist, on a physical level, then you might as well be a beast—no more. You’re no better than an animal. Sure he that made us with such large discourse—God created us with such amazing minds, with an amazing capacity to think, to reason—looking before and after—enabling us to remember, to plan, to imagine—obviously he gave us not that capability and godlike reason to fust in us unused. We can have memories, dreams, hopes, desires; we can imagine the future, remember the past—and we can think. It’s that capacity to think, to be rational, that makes us better than beasts—and we owe it to our creator to use that gift, not let it rot, or rust.